


Till the End When Our Story's Been Told (Brothers-in-Arms We'll Stay)

by writethisway



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: Gen, I faked the research and it probably shows, Violence, but it's not graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writethisway/pseuds/writethisway
Summary: “Oh no, no, no, the best decision of my life was hanging onto the steering wheel in my jeep while it was flipping three times. Three times, I'm telling you.”-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Course, I didn’t die, which was inconvenient because the chaplain had already trashed my foot locker. Still missing half my stuff, can’t find my leg anywhere.”Or where my two favorite fandoms collide
Relationships: Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa, kinda? - Relationship
Comments: 10
Kudos: 20





	Till the End When Our Story's Been Told (Brothers-in-Arms We'll Stay)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi 
> 
> I have no words for myself other than here you go. 
> 
> If you haven't watched Agent Carter, please watch it. 
> 
> If you haven't listened to Bandstand, please listen, even though I spoil the second biggest part of the show.
> 
> Title from Brothers in Arms from The Civility of Albert Cashier. 
> 
> This is unbetaed, and my first time writing Bandstand and it probably shows so...

It was December, 1944, and the Sergeant couldn’t feel his leg.

“Fucking Krauts,” the Sergeant murmurs, trying to hold onto something, his eyes closing and opening, groaning whenever the medic touched him and worked on him.

“It’s alright, you’re going to be fine,” the medic says, “I hear the cavalry came and we’re getting out of here.”

“Patton?” he whispers.

“Not Patton, apparently Captain America!” the medic whispers excitedly ”Sergeant Johnny Simpson, but you can call me Johnny, your name?”

“Sergeant Daniel Sousa,” he says blearly as Johnny nods and then works on him, giving him a bit of morphine and then making sure his leg was wrapped up in bandages and somewhat stable.

“Where are you from?” he asks, quietly, still working on him.

“Boston, Massachusetts, you?”

“Lancaster, Pennsylvania, about two hours or so from Philadelphia.”

He nods, and Sousa sighs, softly, groaning a little as Johnny wraps his leg up, and calls another person to help Sousa out onto the litter.

Sousa passed out during the time that Johnny started working on him, and regained consciousness during the ambulance ride to the hospital, but then passed out again because of the pain.

He worked on him, after his surgery, as they were both stuck at Bastogne for the time being, before sending him off to America via Paris.

“Good luck Sergeant,” he whispers, before starting to pray for the injured.

It was only a matter of time before Johnny made it home himself.

December 28th, 1944, the day that was stuck in his mind, even if he doesn’t remember the date.

It was cold. Colder than he ever felt before, and that's saying something considering he grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Maybe it was the way that the wind blew harder than anything he's ever felt, and that's including driving his medic jeep through ice and snow.

He grips his steering wheel ready to go for another run for more injured, with his friend Jack and his best friend David. He drives and drives, but the ice was too slippery and the shell hits right by his side of the car and the car goes over and

Flips

Three

Times.

He does remember the accident, and how his head hit the top of the jeep’s roof three times, with him blacking out as the Jeep stops rolling.

He would get told later that he was unconscious for 8 hours, the other two didn’t make it, and he would be sent to Thomas England.

He nods before falling asleep again, sighing slightly.

He was moved to Paris, and then to Thomas England, where he was being pushed by another nurse, when a nurse came up to greet him, taking over for the nurse.

“Sergeant Simpson, nice to meet you, I’m Lieutenant Green, your nurse for right now.”

“For right now?”

“Yes, I’m afraid the ward you’ll be in for the rest of your stay is full up right now, and we have to wait a day or two for a bed to open. So you’ll be in the ward right next door, just for a day or two, while we have another room for you set up. The field agents don’t necessarily tell us everything, and so we thought you were coming a day later,” she starts moving the wheelchair to a room down the hall.

When he got in there, the other man was getting his… something done.

“And there you are Sergeant Sousa! I’ll see you tomorrow.” the nurse says, as the man nods, seeing as he was hooked up to something.

“Sergeant Sousa? I’m here with your temporary roommate.”

“Temporary?” he looks at her.

“Just for a day or so, there was a mix up in the schedule, we have to wait for another bed to open the ward next door.”

Johnny looked over him quickly, Brown, almost black hair and looking over to where his leg, well, used to be.

“Sergeant Johnny Simpson,” he nods, introducing himself. “326th medical.”

“Sergeant Daniel Sousa. 339th combat engineers,” he nods. “I would shake your hand but…”

“It’s fine, I promise.” Johnny nods, as the nurse puts him on the bed.

Daniel nods, “So where’d you serve?”

“I don’t remember, you see, my jeep flipped three times, three times I’m telling you! And everything’s a bit scrambled.”

He nods. “I was European front. Bastogne,” he nods, and seems to shiver in the cold.

Johnny nods, sitting up and fiddling his thumbs before a volunteer comes by with a book basket and hands them both a book of their choosing. Johnny chose “Great Gatsby”, because his copy was blown up along with his footlocker and Daniel chose “From the Earth to the Moon”. They both start reading, and a nurse comes in a while later to flip Daniel onto his stomach. It was a little after that when a nurse came in and grinned at Johnny.

“Alright Sergeant Simpson, we have good news! We can move you into the proper ward now that the bus for Halloran has left. Thank you so much Sergeant Sousa.”

“Bye Johnny, I’ll see you around?”

“See you around Daniel,” he nods.

Johnny nods, as he gets rolled to the other ward.

It was a few weeks later when Johnny meets the guy again. Johnny had had some sort of therapy to help him remember things, but it wasn’t working too well, so it stopped. But they always told him who he was, and then he went to speech therapy, and then to physical therapy. Those repeated a few times a day, and then occupational therapy, where he learned how to play the drums. Well, he knew how to play the drums before he got shipped off, then he forgot, but once he got back, he was a natural on it. It made him think about what was going to happen to him after, but he didn’t mind too much. Just was focused on the now.

One of the guys wheels in there, and looks around. “Hi,” he says softly, making Johnny stop on the drums .

“Hi! Name’s Johnny, What’s yours?”

“Daniel, Daniel Sousa,”

“Can you say that again? My jeep flipped three three times, three times I’m telling you! And well, I don’t really remember much, so.” he shrugs, holding out his hand for him to shake.

“It’s fine, and it’s Daniel Sousa,”

“Like the composer? That’ll make it easier to remember,” Johnny nods, “Drum beats come easy for me, but names and other things? Nothing, goes in one ear and out the other.”

“Ah,” he nods, before rolling up to the piano and plucking out a few keys.

“You play?”

“Just in church, what about you?”

“Did drums in the marching band, in high school.”

“Where’s home for you?”

“I don’t know, you?”

“Boston, Massachusetts,” Daniel nods, starting to pluck out something while Johnny returns to the drum set and starting to play again, and they both look at each other and smile.

“Wanna make a band and try out for the talent show?” Johnny asks.

“Yeah, that sounds swell, meet here tomorrow at 4?” Daniel nods,

“Yeah, I need to check my schedule, but yeah!”

Tomorrow at 4 arrived, and after pleading with his occupational therapist to let him do drums, he sees the man from yesterday arrive.

“Hi Johnny!”

“Hi…” he says softly, trying to remember him.

“Daniel Sousa? We met yesterday and are going to do the talent show together?”

“I remember a little, not too much though,” he sighs, “See my jeep flipped, three times, three three times I’m telling you! So I don’t remember too much.”

“You were going to be the drummer for the talent show we were going to do. I was going to play piano?”

He nods, “Yeah, sounds good!”

Daniel nods and starts plucking keys out before getting into some harder things, before getting into something harder, before starting to play “Peacherine Rag,” and Johnny joins him on the drums, and Daniel smiles back at him while playing the song. It wasn’t the best, but it was fun to have someone to play with.

They decided to do “In the Mood,” as a little tribute to Glenn Miller, who had disappeared just a few weeks prior. They practiced for a little bit, before Daniel wrote down on a napkin where to meet him, and what was going on.

A few days after that, Daniel had gotten Johnny a notebook.

“If you write things down you won’t get so mixed up with names and such,” he grins, and Johnny nods and writes everything down that happens. He has to get a new notebook in two weeks.

That happened for a few weeks, and he liked it. Daniel was nice, and Johnny’s childhood friend Wayne came to visit him for a whole week. They played in elementary school band together, before Wayne had to move away in 6th grade to Cleveland. They were faithful letter writers to each other, and Johnny had the honor of being a groomsman at Wayne's wedding.

Wayne was happy for Johnny, and was even more excited for the talent show, where he learned that Johnny and Daniel would perform together.

Daniel wheels himself out first and Johnny follows, twirling his drumsticks, before sitting down.

Daniel plays the first few notes of “In the Mood” and all the men groan a little, seeing as Miller’s disappearance was still somewhat fresh. But Daniel continues, and Johnny joined in when he plays the first actual chord, and some of the men stopped before starting to hum along, and Johnny grins at Daniel as they continue to play. They finish, and the men applaud, cheering and whistling for them.

Johnny never wanted to forget it.

A few weeks later, Johnny got to go home for a week, and he made his way to the train station in Atlantic City, before getting to Philadelphia. Change trains at Philadelphia to go to Lancaster Station, where his aunt would pick him up and drive him to his parents house.

Soon enough, he was at Lancaster Station, just waiting at the station. He waits for a few hours, sighing softly. He told them he was coming home, right? He walks over to the phone and calls his parents place to get a ringing phone, and then his aunt’s place and nothing.

“What the hell?” he murmurs, before going to the taxi station and getting a cab to his parent’s place, where it was empty, the blinds shuttered.

He runs over to the neighbors and knocks on their door.

The man opens the door and looks shocked at him. “Johnny Simpson? We thought, we were all thought!”

“Can you let me in? And where’s my parents?!”

After learning that his parents had lied to the entire neighborhood that their son was dead after visiting him in the hospital, and that they had moved away, Johnny sits there lost.

“So they don’t want me?”

“I’m sorry Johnny.”

“It’s alright Mr…”

“Oh! Where are our manners, My names Alan Wilson, and this is my wife, Mary Wilson.”

He nods and writes it down in the journal, before looking at the number he wrote down.

“Can I use your phone?”

They nod, and he calls the hospital and explains his situation letting them know he was staying with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, before counting back the hours and calling Wayne.

“Hello?”

“Wayne, it’s Johnny, I have some… news,” he sighs out.

“What is it?”

“My parents lied to everyone, they said I was dead, and just up and left!”

“Johnny, I’m… I’m so sorry, if there’s anything I can do…”

“Get me out of here, I’ll come and live with you in Cleveland, I just need an out.”

“I’m on my way, Atlantic City right?”

“Yeah, Thomas England General in Atlantic City, come after this week though.”

After the week had passed, and Johnny was back at Thomas England, he sighs, running into Daniel, who was just getting out of PT.

“Daniel, hi,” he smiles softly.

“Hey Johnny, what’s up? How was your trip home?” Daniel smiles and Johnny sighs.

“My trip home was a disaster. I really don’t want to talk about it yet.” he sighs and Daniel nods.

“I understand,” Daniel says softly. “Wanna go practice for a bit?”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

They practice for a little, and Johnny felt a bit better about everything that’s gone on, before stopping once mess call had been called. “You ready to go down to dinner?” Daniel turns to him.

“Yeah, let’s go, I feel better now,” he nods.

A few weeks later, Daniel comes up to him grinning.

“There’s a contest, kinda, it’s through the hospital, but the winner gets to play with Harry James,” he says quickly.

“Woah, woah, woah, Daniel! Slow down, tell me again.”

“Contest through the hospital and the winner gets to play with Harry James. You in?”

“Hell yeah,” Johnny grins.

The night that they played with Harry James is the best day of his life. And that’s barring the fact that he’s doing it with his best friend Daniel.

But all good things have to come to an end, and that happened the week after, when Daniel was kicked off to Walter Reed Hospital in DC. Daniel somewhat knew, he was in talks with the doctors a few weeks but it didn’t come together until now.

Of course Johnny wrote to him, he would still be at Thomas England for a few more weeks, and then Johnny got discharged.

Johnny didn’t have anyone besides Mr and Mrs Wilson at home, so maybe, he could go somewhere else. So he packs his bags, packs up his clothes, and goes to Cleveland. Obviously, he gets a new apartment, just with the bare essentials. Mattress, Kitchen, that’s it.

He writes to Daniel, who just got a job at a telephone company in New York and transferred to Halloran Hospital, telling him all about life in Cleveland, and how different it is from Atlantic City. He gets a job at the Post Office sorting mail, before writing to Wayne about life in Cleveland, and how he’s kinda lonely. He does have gigs as a backup drummer, but that was few and far in between.

Wayne made his wife Anna come over after that, and she brings Emily and Grady, her and Wayne’s 8 year-old twins to keep him company. Johnny likes them, they’re sweet and and understand he can’t do much. Most of the time Anna will just cook Johnny dinner and he’ll entertain the kids for a bit, before they all eat and he’ll take his pain pills after they go.

Wayne finally comes home a few weeks after. It’s August, and well, the heat has never been kind to him. But he stands outside with the kids and welcomes Wayne home when his wife drives him home.

Wayne hugs his kids first, and then hugs Johnny second. Johnny smiles softly. “Hey Wayne.”

“Hi Johnny,” he grins.

The first few weeks were going downhill fast, and well… Johnny got fired from the Post Office, Wayne and Anna were fighting more than ever, Daniel was pissed off from the treatment of his co-workers, and it was a huge mess.

So when Wayne called him and told him about a band that was starting up due to the Bayer Aspirin contest, Johnny jumped at the chance. To be in a band and be the main drummer? That would be great.

Wayne let them meet at his house, and Johnny goes over to open the door for Wayne and smiles at Donny.

“Johnny Simpson, drummer. Nice to meet you! What’s your name?”

“Donny Novitski, singer and bandleader, Wayne here says you're pretty good on the drums?” he says, as Johnny lets them in.

“I wouldn’t say good, all I got so far is backup gigs. See, music, drum beats, I know in an instant, but everything else? Weeks at a time, nothing. See, my jeep flipped three times, three times I’m telling ya! And well, I don’t remember things all too well,” he shrugs as Donny winces.

“Jeez, rough luck,” he murmurs, as Johnny nods.

“Yeah, but the way I’m seeing it, is I’m one of the lucky ones,” Johnny nods, before sitting at the drums before tapping out a beat quickly, before solidifying it.

Donny looks impressed and Johnny was signed on that night.

After that, things started to look up for Johnny.

Daniel had written to him about his new crush, Peggy, who works with him. Donny and the band were working together well. He met Julia, an amazing singer, with a heart of gold. And everything started to look up.

Daniel calls every other Sunday morning, after Daniel went to church. He would often hum whatever hymn was stuck in his head, and hum it over the phone and Johnny would tap it out. And would tell him all about the telephone company, and Peggy of course.

Peggy, was one of the sweetest girls he’s ever heard about. Doesn’t make fun of Daniel, makes really good coffee, and gets his coffee for him. She did ask about his leg once, but Daniel brushed it off awkwardly.

So when they won the state competition, Daniel was the first person he told, outside of the band of course. Daniel congratulated them, and even wired Johnny a few dollars to help with the cost, with a note saying, “Meet up before/after the show?”

And then Johnny calls him and they figure it out. They’ll meet after the show on Sunday, and Johnny sends him a telegram with the information. And when Daniel asks about tickets, he got him two tickets, for “Him and Peggy”. Daniel sputtered, and then sighed slightly.

When they got to New York, Johnny calls Daniel, and Daniel confirmed that he and Peggy were coming, just as friends, and that he’ll pick up the tickets from Will Call before the show. Johnny grins and nods, before hanging up, seeing Donny there.

“Who was that on the phone?”

“Oh! My friend Daniel! We met in the hospital together. I wanted to meet up with him because he’s here, and he’s seeing us Sunday with his friend Peggy, and well…”

Donny nods, “It’s okay, just was curious,” he nods, “You’re going to see him after the show?”

“Yeah, he works pretty much everyday, and works late at night. That okay? I just said to meet us here after the show, and we’ll see him at the bar.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’d love to meet him!” Donny smiles, and Johnny grins.

The day of the show arrived, and Johnny comes out to Davy talking to Wayne and grinning, his Sunday best on. He grins and goes to them and they all head off to The Palace.

Jimmy runs in right before they were supposed to go on. He figures out that the entire contest was a huge scam. Wayne went off about sacrifice slapping them in the face, and Johnny has to nod and agree. He thinks back briefly to Daniel, and how he was listening to the Arizona Rattlesnakes right now and smiling, enjoying the show to be slapped in the face with them.

“You’re talking about a suicide mission,” he says softly. He knew too much about those.

“Blow it up,” Wayne says.

“Yeah, blow it up,” Davy says and he nods. Guess they were doing it.

He doesn’t remember much. He remembers the verse about him and it makes too much sense. It’s concise and describes him perfectly. “Johnny made it home, most of him at least, had three operations but the pain has not decreased.”

They go back to The Plaza, and Johnny’s about to go up the stairs when Wayne stops him. “Wait, what about Daniel?”

“D- oh! Right!” he goes back downstairs to the bar, where he finds Peggy and Daniel, sitting and talking quietly at the bar to Davy.

“Daniel!” he says a bit too loud, a bit too carefree, but Daniel smiles, and he smiles, and hugs him. And everything feels that much better.

Daniel looks him up and down and grins. “You look like a new man!”

“I feel like one too.” Johnny smiles. “Sorry about the song choice, we figured out the contest was a scam so…”

“A scam!” Peggy says astonished.

“A scam,” Wayne nods, “Wayne wright, trombonist,” he nods.

“Peggy Carter, Daniel’s friend.” she grins.

“Just a friend? I don’t remember much, see my jeep flipped three times,” Wayne and Davy join in “three times I’m telling you! So I don’t remember too much.”

“But we love him anyways,” Wayne nods, before looking at Daniel. “You served?”

“Yes, I did,” He taps his crutch on the floor and Johnny nods. “Came back with a companion as well.”

“Okinawa,” Wayne nods.

“You ever hear of a Jack Thompson?” Peggy says quietly.

“No, he must have been Navy. I was Marines.” Wayne nods.

“I liberated Dachau,” Davy says solemnly.

Daniel nods and grips his crutch. “Bastogne.”

“Jesus Christ, the snow… I remember reading the papers while it happened and being scared for you all.”

“Did you say Bastogne?” Johnny says, looking at Peggy who looked shell-shocked.

“Yeah, Bastogne, Belgium. Krauts had us surrounded and-”

“Dr Seuss got us out” Johnny and Daniel say at the same time, stunning Wayne, Davy and Peggy into silence. 

“You were there?” Daniel says softly.

“I remember bits and pieces,” Johnny says slowly, “The snow mostly.”

He nods, “And do you remember Harry James?”

“Playing with Harry James was amazing and I’ll never forget that as long as I live!” Johnny grins.

“Obviously, we need to talk more with you,” Davy points at Daniel and Peggy, “So you’re going to sit down at the table and we’re going to catch Johnny up on Hospital stories, and get to know you and your girl Peggy more. Clear?”

Daniel looks at Peggy and shrugs. “If you all insist,” he grins.

“Perfect!” Davy grins and practically forces them over to the table where Nick, Donny, Julia and Jimmy were sitting, and Johnny has to smile. It felt like two worlds coming together, but it was more that they were getting along, than having them collide. Besides, Daniel fit right in sitting next to Jimmy and Julia. And with Peggy by his side, sitting down next to Donny?

It felt like home.


End file.
